Research: InformationWeek Cloud Storage Survey

Kurt Marko07/31/13

Why Backing Up Mobile Devices May Be A Nonissue

Got PC backups down pat? Congratulations. Now get ready to start over from scratch, ­because smartphones and tablets are a whole new ballgame. In mobile operating systems, apps and their data are tightly coupled into a single container, and mobile devices vary widely in how and where they store data and the degree of access provided to third-party apps. As we wrote when discussing the nascent state of mobile device backups, on the iPhone or iPad this means apps can back up only contacts, calendar and photos; iPad users can’t back up locally created content. Android is slightly more open, but even here, users can back up only device and browser settings, the alarm clock, call logs, contacts and playlists — better, but hardly a complete system snapshot.

For some shops, that may add up to a data protection nightmare. But for others, there are workarounds. In this report, we’ll examine the complexities of protecting data on smartphones and tablets — including whether, in this era of cloud services, backing up the device itself even makes sense. In those cases where it does, we’ll outline challenges, examine mobile client backup options and identify important features and implementation considerations. (R7280813)

Survey Name InformationWeek Cloud Storage Survey

Survey Date May 2013

Region North America

Number of Respondents 259

Purpose To gauge the use of cloud storage in the enterprise

Methodology InformationWeek surveyed business technology decision-makers at North American organizations. The survey was conducted online, and respondents were recruited via an email invitation containing an embedded link to the survey. The email ­invitation was sent to qualified InformationWeek subscribers.